We’re just hours from the Capricorn solstice of 2012. This is the last day of the 13th baktun of the Mayan Long Count. A baktun is 144,000 days long. Today may also be the end of the next longer measure of time — a piktun, which I believe to be the measure of 13 baktuns or one-fifth of the Great Cycle — the precession of the equinoxes, or 25,625 years.
Note, the new cycle has not begun; the old one ends today. This is similar to 2000 being the last year of the 20th century. The ’20’ in ’20th century’ manifested in the form of 2000 in the last year of that century.
Long count date 12.19.19.17.19 was Thursday, Dec. 20, 2012 CE, and 13.0.0.0.0 is Friday, Dec. 21, 2012 CE. In the tzolkin count, this is 4 Ahau. The new baktun begins on Long Count date 13.0.0.0.1, which is Saturday, Dec. 22. In the tzolkin count this is 5 Imix. (I will invite the daykeepers I know to comment on the tzolkin dates, which are part of the 260 day short count or spiritual calendar that’s become pretty popular the past 25 years.)
So, today we are at the end; the last day of an era. We have one more day to reflect on our very eventful little baktun. Whatever was going on back in 3113 BCE when the count begins, I’m impressed by the start date of our current phase: it began in 1618. In fact I am looking at the chart for the first time — the Virgo New Moon of Sept 18, 1618. Most of the planets you see in this chart were not discovered. There was a square between Venus in Scorpio and Mars in Leo — a bit of tension there, eh? Mars is on the South Node, just like it is in the USA chart. Venus is square the nodes. It all comes back to…compersion.
This was the dawn of the colonial era. My reference point is the founding of the Dutch East India Company in 1602. I learned about that in the 4th grade; I think of it as Colonialism, Inc. The company was granted a 21-year monopoly to not just conduct trade but to carry out colonial activities in Asia.
Wikipedia’s editors write:
It is often considered to have been the first multinational corporation in the world and it was the first company to issue stock. It was also arguably the first megacorporation, possessing quasi-governmental powers, including the ability to wage war, imprison and execute convicts, negotiate treaties, coin money, and establish colonies.